Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores Chooses Bit9 Parity to Achieve PCI Compliance & Secure Retail Systems

Retail chain finds Application Whitelisting to be the easiest, most secure retail security solution for its 200 nationwide stores

WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 4 -- Bit9, Inc., the pioneer and leader in Enterprise Application Whitelisting, announced today that Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores has chosen Bit9 Parity(TM) to help achieve compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) as well as to proactively protect its retail store systems from targeted, zero-day attacks.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080204/BIT9LOGO )

Founded in 1964, Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores operate more than 200 travel stop locations throughout 35 states from California to Virginia, with each travel stop including a convenience store, fast-food restaurant and gas outlet. Love's is using Bit9 Parity Application Whitelisting to protect over 1,600 Windows PCs and servers in its retail stores, as well as corporate computers that tie into its retail systems. With Bit9 Parity, Love's is able to demonstrate PCI DSS compliance, harden its point of sale and retail systems, enable use of trusted devices and prevent data leakage from portable storage devices.

"Love's is committed to making sure our customers' confidential data secure. Application whitelisting helps us protect against all unauthorized and rogue applications that simply can't be prevented with traditional antivirus technology," said Dion Crider, Director of Store Technology, Love's. "With Bit9, we are able to take a more proactive approach to securing our retail systems, ensuring the highest level of protection for our customers and enabling us to prove PCI compliance."

Malicious hackers often focus their attacks on retailers at the point of sale (POS) systems. Traditional reactive approaches to protecting and controlling POS systems -- antivirus -- have failed to stop the penetration of unauthorized, malicious and illegal software, potentially leaving customers at risk.

Bit9 Parity is the most effective way to control and secure applications on Windows-based retail systems. Unlike traditional reactive solutions that need constant signature updates to remain effective, Bit9's whitelisting approach allows only authorized software to run, without the burden of updating signature files. Bit9 Parity protects data at these endpoints where it is most vulnerable by enforcing a "whitelist" of approved applications and preventing application drift. Any and all unauthorized software is prevented from running, which ensures the integrity of the systems and their critical data. Bit9 Parity also provides application audit and change control visibility, allowing IT to monitor and report on when unauthorized and rogue applications attempt to execute on retail endpoints. And Bit9 Parity also identifies when an unauthorized portable storage devices attempt to run on retail endpoints, POS systems, servers or self-serve kiosks.

"Bit9 Parity makes it easier for Love's field staff and central IT department to achieve compliance requirements," said Tom Murphy, chief strategy officer at Bit9. "Using Bit9 Parity, Love's is able to prevent potential targeted or unknown attacks and, at the same time, protect their brand through a higher level of data security."

About Bit9, Inc.

Bit9 is the pioneer and leader in enterprise application whitelisting, visibility and control. The company's patent-pending application control solutions ensure only trusted and authorized applications are allowed to run, eliminating the risk caused by malicious, illegal and unauthorized software. Unlike traditional reactive controls that try to scan and prevent the never-ending list of unauthorized software, Bit9 leverages the Bit9 Global Software Registry(TM) -- the world's largest database of software intelligence - to ensure only authorized applications can run, delivering the highest levels of desktop security, compliance, and manageability. Bit9 customers include companies in a wide variety of industries, such as retail, financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, telecommunications, as well as government agencies. Founded in 2002, Bit9 is privately held and based in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.bit9.com/ or call +1 617.393.7400.

  Press Contact:
  Jennifer Bulmahn
  Text 100 for Bit9
  617.723.1044
  jenniferb at text100.com